Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung suffers broken wrist against Tampa Bay Rays

The Texas Rangers suffered their first major injury of the 2024 season on Monday when all-star third baseman Josh Jung fractured his right wrist after being hit by a pitch from Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Phil Maton.

Jung was hit in the ninth inning of the Rangers 9-3 win over the Rays and was replaced in the game by Josh Smith.

Jung was off to a hot start batting .412 with two home runs and six RBIs through the season’s first four games.

After the game Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters that Jung had a fractured wrist.

“I just feel horrible for him,” Bochy said of Jung in a postgame interview. “He’s had such tough luck on this thing as far as the injuries and it puts a damper on this one. … He’ll be back.”

No stranger to injury, the Texas Tech product missed much of spring training with a strained left calf. In 2023 Jung broke his thumb in August, returning before the end of the regular season in September.

In 2022 Jung suffered a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder in spring, which delayed his MLB debut till September. In 2021 Jung missed half the season with a stress fracture in his left foot.

Jung batted .308 with three home runs, eight RBIs and 13 runs scored in 17 playoff games in the Rangers’ run to the World Series last season.

The Rangers will lean on Josh Smith and Ezequiel Durán in the all-star’s absence which is expected to last approximately eight to ten weeks.

The Rangers are reportedly promoting former first-round draft pick Justin Forscue to replace Jung on the active roster.

Rangers beat Rays

Prior to the injury Jung hit a three-run first-inning home run. Adolis Garcia added a solo shot in the eighth, his 100th career home run, in the 9-4 win at Tampa.

Corey Seager reached base three times Jared Walsh tacked on an RBI single for Texas, which played its first away game since going 11-0 on the road throughout the 2023 playoffs en route to the franchise’s first World Series title.

Rangers starting pitcher Dane Dunning (1-0) was sharp throughout most of his season debut, allowing one hit over six innings before surrendering two home runs in the seventh. The right-hander finished with three earned runs, seven strikeouts and four walks over 6 1/3 innings.

Jose Siri and Richie Palacios each homered for Tampa Bay, which managed five hits and lost its sixth straight to Texas, including a two-game sweep in the wild-card round last season.

The defending World Series champions struck quickly in their first road game of 2024.

Marcus Semien and Seager each drew a walk to start the game before Jung clubbed Ryan Pepiot’s changeup 387 feet over the wall in left-center field with two outs to propel Texas ahead 3-0.

Making his Rays debut, Pepiot (0-1) settled down after his 31-pitch first inning, retiring 11 of the next 13 batters until the Rangers added on in the sixth.

Field Level Media contributed to this report.